Vesper Martini

On the seventh day of Christmas my bartender made for me, an (almost) authentic James Bond martini….

Both Mr.Surly and I are big James Bond fans. So when it came to Day 7, I immediately thought of agent 007. We have a bar book we bought that contains the authentic drink of James Bond, with directions straight from Ian Flemming's Casino Royale.

The drink's name is derived from Vesper Lynd, the double agent James falls in love with. Russian vodka is used to symbolize Vesper's ties to the Russians. The orange twist is used to compliment the Lillet Blanc, which is made from oranges and a combination of french wines and is a substitute for vermouth. Our bar book said to garnish with an orange to compliment the Lillet blanc, even though Bond asked for a thin slice of lemon peel. (Click here to watch the scene from Casino Royale where Bond (Daniel Craig) orders the drink).

Bond prefers his martini served in a champagne coupe** but not having those, we opted for a martini glass. I love the look of the champagne coupes, I must add some to my stemware collection.

Mr.Surly claimed this drink; I had a sip and it was really, really good. But also very, very potent, so one drink and you'd be feelin' real good.

We didn't have Gordon's dry gin, but we used Bombay Sapphire which is a dry London Gin, so at least it's British, which I feel is appropriate.

For vermouth we used Martini and Rossi dry vermouth.

Spicy Hot Bloody Mary

While on vacation in August, for some reason, someone in Mr.Surly's family got a craving for a Bloody Mary. No one really knew how to make a bloody mary, so Mr.Surly's sister, an aspiring NYC bartender, took charge of the task. The result was delicious; so good, in fact, that once home Mr.Surly requested a bloody mary one Saturday afternoon. I had to text Surly-SIL (sister-in-law) for the recipe. She gave me the ingredient list but I had to play around with the ratio's to get it to Mr.Surly's liking (it took a couple of attempts).

Warning about these; they are hot and spicy. If that isn't your thing, just use regular V8 and maybe omit the creole seasonings.